Chicago’s Playoff Dish Is Deep In 2026

Congrats to the Cubs and White Sox on making the playoffs within two minutes of each other yesterday. The White Sox did it on the back of this great David Sandlin start (6 IP, 1 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 5.58). Pretty cool to go from last place to first, but mostly congrats to me for streaming him yesterday. To think, before that, I thought a Sandlin was a Girl Scout cookie. Going forward this weekend — Streamonator, as always, and good luck! Also, in the White Sox game, Kyle Teel went 2-for-2, 3 runs and his 5th homer. Fun fact! His family landed on Ellis Island with the last name, Aquamarine, but they made them change it. The opposite of helping, Colson Montgomery went 0-for-4, 1 K, hitting .200. A player has hit more than 30 home runs in a season 1,408 times in MLB history. Among those 1,408, Colson Montgomery‘s 2026 season ranks 1,407th in terms of OPS. Also, move over, Mini Donkey. Colson tied him as the single season record holder for strikeouts. Since 8/1, Colson’s struck out 44% of the time. Is that good? No? Hmm, well, Pete Crow-Armstrong (1-for-3, 40th steal) is, as he reached 40/40. He owes Jose Canseco a nickel. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Matthew Boyd – 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.91. “Yeah, Boyd!” That’s Flavor Flav winning his H2H matchup.

Seiya Suzuki – 2-for-3 and his 26th homer. Seiya ball!

Sandy Alcantara – Will finish the year in the pen. Mentioned this on the podcast the other day, but Sandy should be like, “Hey, cool stuff you guys are doing in the rotation, but I kinda like throwing 12 pitches in an inning vs. 120 pitches a game so, like, call me Mariandy Riveralcantara because I’m a closer now. Mariandy Riveralcantara is Mariano Rivera and my name combined. Is that not clear? Hmm…Hope the Marlins don’t call on me in the 9th inning to make a portmanteau.”

Randy Dobnak – 1 1/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 3.51. One star on the Uber app.

Salvador Perez – 1-for-3 and his 20th homer, hitting .228. Watching Sal Perez play and it looks like a refrigerator with legs, but with bad knees where the produce should go, and occasionally the freezer door opens fast and it hits a home run. It’s very sad to watch. He’s also basically Luis Arraez compared to Cal Raleigh.

Zac Thornton – 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.42. Thornton is a good example that I can use to repeat my most oft-repeated verse from the Book of Grey: Next year, Thornton will be free. I won’t say he’s going to be an ace, but he can absolutely be usable for months at a time. This year he threw 140-ish IP. If he throws 170 IP next year with his peripherals, he’ll look like a cheap Sandy Alcantara. Call him Po Rivera. Ya know, because Sandy’s going to be Mariano Rivera and his nickname was Mo so Zac is Po–Ya know what, forget it.

Corey Seager – 1-for-4 and his 19th homer, hitting .226. No one’s sadder than Corey Seager, because not only did he have a bad season — oh, he did! — but because it was bad and no one cares.

Josh Jung – 3-for-3, 2 RBIs and his 12th homer, hitting .299. Jung man! No need to be rude, but you’re yawnstipating. I said, Jung man!

Kumar Rocker – 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.38. Also streamed Rocker yesterday — Woohoo! Thank you, big brain in head! There’s no Buy/Sell this afternoon, but you can get a three-day free trial for the Streamonator for the final weekend.

Angel Martinez – 1-for-4 and his 18th homer, just around the Pesky Pole for a 319-foot homer. Wanna go scoping out for a 2027 sleeper, who is actually a sleeper, and not just a guy who will be over-drafted because everyone will like him? Check out Angel Martinez’s stats.

Ranger Suarez – 5 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.22. Was convinced in the preseason Ranger Suarez was a good bet in Fenway because he kept the ball down, and gotta love it when a plan comes together. One plan out of 300 plans.

Jackson Chourio – 1-for-1, 2 runs and a slam (25) and legs (23), hitting .285. Should be a 30/30 season, but the WBC robbed us. Hashtag never forget (things that affect me).

Andrew Painter – 6 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 5.40. In on Painter next year in mixed leagues? I don’t know; it’s gonna be a tough call. I’d guess he’s free in drafts, but a 5+ ERA isn’t free when it’s on your team. Getting philosophical!

Austin Riley – 1-for-2, 2 RBIs and his 19th homer, and 2nd homer in two games. Riley finally woke. He just needed to be moved to the eight hole and have three straight terrible seasons.

Elly De La Cruz – 1-for-4 and his 30th homer. On the Cards & Categories podcast, I joined Mike this week to talk 1st rounders from this year and where they might be next year — because a lot of them are not going to be in the 1st round again. E! though? He’s the best performing 1st rounder from this year.

Hector Rodriguez – 2-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 6th homer. Oh, yeah, I’m ready to make some mistakes with Hect-Ro in 2027. When has a Reds’ outfielder ever disappointed me before?

George Lombard Jr. – 2-for-4, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 7th homer, and 2nd homer in two games, and third homer in a week. There’s no Buy column this afternoon. Everyone is a buy if they’re a hot and everyone is a sell. With that said, I just picked up Lombard Jr. in my RCL the other day.

Austin Wells – 1-for-2, 2 runs and a slam (14) and legs (4). Wells making a last-minute run for the most random slam & legs. Sorry, Nick Allen on May 23rd has you beat, as he had a one slam & legs, and only hit three homers and stole two bags all year.

Cam Schlittler – 3 IP, 1 ER, ERA at 1.95. Unless something changes with Yordan, Schlittler will end the year as the top AL player. Not pitcher — but player! That’s incredibly rare. I’ll go over it more next week.

Ian Seymour – 5 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, zero walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.22. Ooh, very cool! Ian Seymour recorded a For Your Consideration for 2027.

Julio Rodriguez – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 22nd homer. Ah, see, JRod is a 2nd half of the last week of the season player!

Bryan Woo – 5 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 10 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 4.01. If I were the M’s, I’d do some research into why their pitching sucks now. Maybe read a book.

Tyler Glasnow – 6 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 5 baserunners, 11 Ks, ERA at 3.53. Dodgers activated Glasnow a week early. If they activated him a little bit later, this would’ve been his first playoffs start. Now he’s going to get hurt in the NLCS and miss the World Series. Ugh, you hate to see it.

Zack Gelof – 2-for-3, and his 21st and 22nd homer, and 2nd and 3rd homer in three games, and four homers in a week. I’m going to draft so many A’ss next year. You can’t spell embarrassing without A’ss I’m gonna draft so many.

Lucas Spence – 3-for-4, 5 RBIs and his 1st, 2nd and 3rd homer. Lucas Spence, H2H winner! [putting ear to the ground] I can hear the one person who has Lucas Spence in a league. They’re in Connecticut. Sounds like…Stamford, maybe someone with the WWE?

Isaac Paredes – 1-for-4 and his 24th homer, 3rd homer in a week. When doing projections for next year, I have to remember to make sure to account for a guy’s last week of the season stats. They do count, technically, but cmon.

Christian Walker – 2-for-4, 2 runs and his 27th homer. Grab anyone in Bing Bong Stadium this weekend. Yes, even Lucas Spence.

Daulton Varsho – Hit the IL for old time’s sake.

Kyle Karros – 2-for-5 and his 13th homer. With Hrody Clemens becoming “sorta decent,” Kyle Karros is left being the One True Nepo Baby. Don’t worry, I won’t start calling him OTNB making you think, “Is Grey calling him a New Kid on the Block? Why? Because he’s hangin’ tough?”

Cole Carrigg – 4-for-5, 3 RBIs and his 11th homer, hitting .276. Not sure if he’ll be a sleeper because of his price, but Carrigg is going to be on all my 2027 teams.

Nolan Arenado – 3-for-5, 3 RBIs and his 29th homer, hitting .254. Wow, I can’t believe I just stumbled on the nuclear codes. These should be kept in a safe place, which makes it especially odd I’m going to leave them by this open window–NOOOO!!! Torenado!

Gabriel Moreno – 1-for-6, 3 RBIs and his 16th homer, hitting .308. Arraez still has him by four points, but Moreno is vying still, and would become the 3rd catcher since 1950 to win a batting title.

Eduardo Rodriguez – 6 IP, 2 ER, 9 hits, zero walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.89. Can’t do anything but laugh that he managed to put together an incredible season, while being on waivers in shallower leagues for most of it. I’ll go over the position recaps starting next week, but EdRod is finishing the year in the top 20 starters.

Alec Burleson – 1-for-4 and his 24th homer. Having 24 homers and leading the majors in RBIs is very 1980’s coded. Who do you think you are, Hal McRae? Hey, Alec Burleson, you’re not Tim Wallach. Sorry, to break it to you, but I know Cecil Cooper, and you are no Cecil Cooper.

Mason Montgomery – 1 IP, 0 ER, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.55. Don’t talk much about closers who are doing well, but this might be my last time to say, I want Mason Montgomery in every league in 2027.

Paul Skenes – 6 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.82. Shh, I’m trying to get Skenes at a discount next year. He sucks! Boo! What a loser! Can’t believe his career is over at — how old is he? 24? Ugh, gonna be hard to sell this to keep him cheap in 2027 drafts. Well, too bad he’s 24 and over the hill! Oh well! Don’t draft him (so I can). It’s so funny that people are now not drafting Skenes high because he had one down year at the age of 24. He’s only got ten more years of being productive. Shame on him for having one down year. I honestly don’t think people’s critical reasoning skills are up to the task sometimes. Skenes said he was struggling, due to the WBC, and his stats bear that out. You really think he’s done because of one bad year? Do yourself a favor and don’t look at Randy Johnson’s ages 25 through 28 seasons. Don’t look at Pedro Martinez’s 1996 season. Don’t look at Justin Verlander’s age 25 season. Woof, please don’t. He had a 4.84 ERA in 201 IP in 2008, and there’s no way he bounces back after that. Don’t tell me if he does, I’m watching old seasons and only up to April of the 2009 season.